Lock with security counter

ABSTRACT

A lock such as a padlock in combination with a registering counter operated by the shackle of the lock for counting and registering the number of times the shackle is moved from unlocked to locked position, in which the acuating link between the shackle and the counter comprises rack and pinion means.

[451 Feb. 5, 1974 United States Patent 1 Canter R 7 l l 5 3 2 7/1969Hermann 9/1915 LOCK WITH SECURITY COUNTER [76] Inventor:

3,458,127 1,152,776 Wolfe 1,308,458 3,221,526

7/l9l9 Voight..

Richard S. Canter, 2O Clent Rd., Great Neck, NY. 11021 July 10, 197270/437 12/1965 Stackhouse...........................70/437 [22] Filed:

Primary Examiner-Robert L. Wolfe Attorney, Agent, or FirmEdward Halle[21] Appl. No.: 270,313

ABSTRACT A lock such as a padlock in combination with a registeringcounter operated by the shackle of the lock for counting and registeringthe number of times the shackle is moved from unlocked to lockedposition, in

[56] References Cited which the acuating link between the shackle andthe UNITED STATES PATENT counter comprises rack and pinion means.

1,486,037 3/1924 Roosseau.............................. 70/437 14Claims, 5 Drawing Figures LOCK WITH SECURITY COUNTER BRIEF SUMMARY OFTHE INVENTION In certain applications where locks are used it isnecessary to have an exact count of the number of times that access hasbeen gained to the room or container which has been secured by locking.This becomes important in cases where security files or secret files arekept in a room or file container, and it is also important in caseswhere sensitive materials such a drugs are kept ina room, cabinet orcontainer. There are many other applications where informationconcerning access to locked places is important.

One way of determining the control of access to locked places is to havean accurate count of the number of times the locked closure has beenopened. Thus if it is determined that a door of a room, or a cabinet,has been opened three times whereas the records show officiallyauthorized openings only twice, then it must be presumed that the thirdopening resulted from an unauthorized access to the secured area.

Various types of locks have been devised which incorporate a countersuch as a registering counter from which one can determine the number oftimes the lock mechanism has been operated to unlock and lock the lock.The present invention falls within this class of device. The presentinvention has as an objective a positive connection between the lock andthe counter.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a positiveconnection with a minimum number of extraneous working parts and it isalso an object of the in vention to provide such a connection which willremain positive in its application while permitting the lock shackle torotate freely without disturbing the action of the counting mechanism.Further objects and advantages will appear in the descriptionhereinbelow.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The invention isillustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation with parts in phantom;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation partly in section along the lines 22 of FIG.1;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective of a registering counter and a pinionas incorporated in the invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the shackle of the invention only alongthe lines 4-4 as shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view of an alternate form of lock havingcombination operating means.

Similar numbers referto similar parts throughout the several views ofthe drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The lock has a main body portion 10. In thepreferred embodiment the lock is in the form of a padlock and the lockbody portion may be either machined from solid stock, or from laminatedconstruction, or it may be a casting of suitable durable material forsecurity purposes. The usual materials for lock bodies are steel, brassand castings. The machining or casting should provide sufficient openingto allow the placement in, or connection with, the body portion 10 of ashackle 12, a locking mechanism comprising a cylinder 14, lockingelements such as locking balls 16 and a retainer assembly 18. Thereshould also be provision within the body portion for holding aregistering counter 20 securely in place in a position to be connectedto the shackle 12, as will be hereinafter described. The manner offorming lock bodies 10 and providing for the inclusion of the machinedparts is well known to the art.

The shackle 12 comprises a first leg 22 and a second leg 24. Both legshave detents 26 is opposed facing realtionship so that they can hold theshackle 12 in a locked position by means of the locking balls 16 andretainer assembly 18, as is well known in the art. When in lockedposition, as shown in solid line in FIG. 1, the balls 16 are maintainedwithin the detents 26. By operation of the retainer assembly 18 theballs 16 are permitted to be placed inwardly so that the shackle 12 canmove from a locked position, as shown in solid line in FIG. 1, to anunlocked position, as shown in dotted line in FIG. 1, and vice versa.When shackle 12 is in unlocked position it may rotate around an axisdesignated by dotted line 30 so that the end 32 of leg 24 can be movedaway from the body portion, as shown in FIG. 2, in order to facilitateinsertion through a loop or locking hasp (not shown) during a lockingoperation. The registering counter 20 is provided with a visible readout such as the digital counter 22, and the body portion is providedwith an observation opening 34 so that the visible read out of thecounter 20 can be seen. First leg 22 of shackle 12 is provided with rackmeans 36. Rack means 36 is formed by a series of teeth 38 having curvedouter edges such as curved ridges 40. In the preferred form of theinvention the curved ridges 40, as well as the teeth 38, are formedcompletely around leg 22 to form annular shaped teeth 38.

The counter 20 is operated through a shaft 42 on which is mounted apinion 44. The pinion 44 is in constant mesh with the teeth 40. When theshackle 12 is moved from a locked position to an unlocked position, theteeth 40 will move longitudinally with the shackle and cause the pinion44 to rotate. The pinion 44 will also rotate for the same reason whenthe shackle 12 is moved from an unlocked to a locked position, howeverin a reverse direction of rotation.

It is desired in this invention to have the counter work in a forwarddirection only, so that the actual number of unlocked and locked figureswill be recorded without any subtraction from the visible read outrecord. The counter 20 is therefore selected to be one which willactuate and register a count only when the pinion 44 is moved in a firstdirection and will not register the addition or subtraction of a countwhen the pinion is moved in a second or reversed direction. Thus, everytime a lock is unlocked or locked the cycle will provide an unlockingand a locking movement of the shackle and will cause the read out on thecounter 20 to move up one unit; Shaft operated counters such as counter20 are well known in the art and the parameter of the rack and pinioncan be adjusted to rotate the shaft 42 a sufficient distance in theselected direction to register the addition of one count for eachcomplete locking cycle of the lock.

, With the construction as described, the shackle 12 may be rotated onaxis 30 when in open position without affecting the pinion 44. When leg22 of the shackle 12 rotates, the teeth 40 will rotate with it. However,the movement of the teeth in thedirection of rotation will be lateral tothe pinion and will not move the pinion. It will nevertheless still be apositive connection between the shackle 12 and the counter 20 because ofthe annular construction of the teeth. In the preferred form of theinvention a shaft operated registering counter with a read out sectionis used which is actuated by a rotation of shaft 42 in the direction ofthe arrow in FIG. 3.

It has been found that a registering counter such as the mechanicaltotalizing counter types sold by the Veeder Root Corp. of Hartford,Connecticut, will register one higher unit of count for each cycle ofthe lock in accordance with the invention when attached to a pinion andrack arrangement as described hereinabove.

A spring 46 which is seated against a spring seat 48 in the body portionand against the end 50 of the first leg 22 is provided to maintain theshackle 12 in unlocked position when the locking mechanism is operatedto remove the balls 16 from the detents 26. The unlocking isaccomplished by rotating the cylinder 14 which rotates the retainerassembly 18. Retainer assembly 18 can be rotated by removable key 52 inthe usual manner or by a permutation type lock operating mechanism wellknown to the art. Such well-known combination operating means 54 areshown in FIG. 5 of the drawings. The combination operating means 54shown in FIG. 5 are set at 000. It is to be understood, of course, thatthe combination setting may be fixed in any numeral known to the art byany other numerals or indicia.

In the construction shown in the preferred form of the invention theshackle 12 is placed off center, somewhat to the rear of the bodyportion 10, to provide room for the counter 20 to lie within the bodyportion, as shown in the figures of the drawings. This arrangement makesit possible for the shaft operated counter to be in offset perpendiculararrangement to at least one leg of the shackle to actuate the mechanismof the connection made by the rack and pinion arrangement. The inventionas described shows a registering counter attached to a lock shackle. bymeans of a single connecting part, namely the pinion.

While I have defined this invention in its preferred form, there areother forms that it may take without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention.

Wherefore I claim:

1. A lock comprising a main body portion; a shackle movable withrelation to said main body portion from an unlocked position to a lockedposition, a locking mechanism for locking the shackle in said lockedposition, a registering counter operated by said shackle for countingand registering the number of times the shackle is moved from unlockedto locked position; wherein the shackle comprises a leg including rackmeans and the registering counter includes pinion means in meshedengagement with said rack means.

2. A lock as claimed in claim 1, in which the rack means comprises atleast one tooth including a ridge,

with at least a portion of said ridge curved around a portion of theleg.

3. A lock as claimed in claim 2, in which the shackle leg is rotatablymounted to rotate on an axis with relation to the main body portion andthe curved ridge of the rack tooth is substantially located in at leasta portion of a circumference around said axis of said leg.

4 A lock as claimed in claim 1, in which the rack means comprisesannular teeth.

5. A lock as claimed in claim 4, in which the registering counter is adigital counter actuated by movement of the pinion.

6. A lock as claimed in claim 4, in which the registering counter isincluded within the main body portion and the pinion means is positionedsubstantially perpendicular to said leg axis within said body portion.

7. A lock as claimed in claim 6, in which the body portion hasobservation means through which at least a portion of the registeringcounter is visible, and the registering counter has a visible read out.

8. A lock as claimed in claim 7, in which the shackle is U-shaped and isprovided with a second leg shorter than said first leg, comprising anend positioned outside of the main body portion when the shackle is inunlocked position and within the main body portion when the shackle ismoved to locked position.

9. A lock as claimed in claim 8, in which the first mentioned shackleleg is movably mounted within the main body portion against the actionof spring means seated within said main body portion with said springmeans positioned to urge said first mentioned leg towards the unlockedposition.

10. A lock as claimed in claim 9, in which the locking mechanismcomprises a pair of ball elements and the shackle legs are each formedwith a ball receiving portion positioned so that the ball elements willenter said ball receiving portions when said shackle is moved to lockedposition, to maintain said shackle in locked position.

11. A lock as claimed in claim 10, in which the locking mechanismincludes operating cylinder means to operate the ball elements.

12. A lock as claimed in claim 11, in which the operating cylinder meansincludes a removable key.

13. A lock as claimed in claim 11, in which the operating cylinder meansis associated with combination operating means.

14. A lock as claimed in claim 11, in which the registering counter isconnected to the pinion means by means of a shaft and the counter andits shaft are in offset perpendicular relation to the first mentionedshackle leg.

1. A lock comprising a main body portion; a shackle movable withrelation to said main body portion from an unlocked position to a lockedposition, a locking mechanism for locking the shackle in said lockedposition, a registering counter operated by said shackle for countingand registering the number of times the shackle is moved from unlockedto locked position; wherein the shackle comprises a leg including rackmeans and the registering counter includes pinion means in meshedengagement with said rack means.
 2. A lock as claimed in claim 1, inwhich the rack means comprises at least one tooth including a ridge,with at least a portion of said ridge curved around a portion of theleg.
 3. A lock as claimed in claim 2, in which the shackle leg isrotatably mounted to rotate on an axis with relation to the main bodyportion and the curved ridge of the rack tooth is substantially locatedin at least a portion of a circumference around said axis of said leg.4. A lock as claimed in claim 1, in which the rack means comprisesannular teeth.
 5. A lock as claimed in claim 4, in which the registeringcounter is a digital counter actuated by movement of the pinion.
 6. Alock as claimed in claim 4, in which the registering counter is includedwithin the main body portion and the pinion means is positionedsubstantially perpendicular to said leg axis within said body portion.7. A lock as claimed in claim 6, in which the body portion hasobservation means through which at least a portion of the registeringcounter is visible, and the registering counter has a visible read out.8. A lock as claimed in claim 7, in which the shackle is U-shaped and isprovided with a second leg shorter than said first leg, comprising anend positioned outside of the main body portion when the shackle is inunlocked position and within the main body portion when the shackle ismoved to locked position.
 9. A lock as claimed in claim 8, in which thefirst mentioned shackle leg is movably mounted within the main bodyportion against the action of spring means seated within said main bodyportion with said spring means positioned to urge said first mentionedleg towards the unlocked position.
 10. A lock as claimed in Claim 9, inwhich the locking mechanism comprises a pair of ball elements and theshackle legs are each formed with a ball receiving portion positioned sothat the ball elements will enter said ball receiving portions when saidshackle is moved to locked position, to maintain said shackle in lockedposition.
 11. A lock as claimed in claim 10, in which the lockingmechanism includes operating cylinder means to operate the ballelements.
 12. A lock as claimed in claim 11, in which the operatingcylinder means includes a removable key.
 13. A lock as claimed in claim11, in which the operating cylinder means is associated with combinationoperating means.
 14. A lock as claimed in claim 11, in which theregistering counter is connected to the pinion means by means of a shaftand the counter and its shaft are in offset perpendicular relation tothe first mentioned shackle leg.